I get up as early as possible in the morning, drink about 1 liter of green tea, and read the international press (online) for about an hour. Then I do between 30 and 60 minutes of yoga, always with the same teacher on YouTube—I really like her style. This is followed by 40 minutes of meditation. Sometimes I lie down on a Shakti pillow for a while. I do these exercises every day, taking a break once a week. This is the rhythm of my day, and I don’t need to motivate myself because I feel very comfortable with it and find it a good way to start the day.
Maybe join a class at the gym? This seems to motivate my wife. I just do it because I know I need to.
How about find some of play that happens to result in exercise happening as a side effect?
For some something that is focused on achieving a new skill is, if not quite fun, at least more interesting.
What is fun for you? Broad brush strokes.
Also having a goal that isn’t fitness for its own sake: want to be able to dance all night at a kid’s wedding, signing up for a trip that includes some physical challenge and wanting to be ready for it, so on.
For the last 10 months i’ve been hitting the gym 4 days per week. 100% strength training. I have no real advice for you but this is what has worked for me. FYI I hate the gym.
- I want to be able to get out of bed when i’m 70. I tell myself this every time.
- I worked with a personal trainer for the first 4 months. I was paying the guy (a significant amount over the gym membership) so I had motivation to go. I learned to work out without hurting myself. More importantly…
- …We worked out a weight regime that over the course of a week hits all major muscle groups and can be done in a half hour per session (plus 10 minutes warm-up and cool-down). So I know it’ll be over quickly.
- I made it as easy as possible. The gym is across the street from my kids school. I drop them off in the morning, hit the gym, then go to work.
- ROUTINE. This is the most important. It just become something you do. Like brushing your teeth.
We’ve been doing the CrossFit Life class–AKA CrossFit for older broken people-for a year and a half. It’s very social and focused on balance and weightlifting/bearing. It’s extremely varied as to what exercises you do, although there are a lot of squats, deadlifts and burpees. We also hike with the dogs almost every day….
Yes, I’ve been trying to Just Do It for a while now, but I’m having varied success with it, so I was hoping for ideas for an approach that didn’t primarily rely on pure discipline and willpower.
Quoted for emphasis.
I bet you brush your teeth daily. But you aren’t motivated to brush your teeth; it’s just something you do, because you know it’s good for you.
Treat working out the same way. Schedule it as part of your week. You can make significant progress with 30-45 minutes of exercise 3-4 days per week, but I recommend making a daily commitment to your fitness (even if you spend some of those days just stretching), just so it becomes a habit.
That’s not to say that motivation isn’t important. But it will come later. If you are going to end up on a successful exercise path, you will find that you enjoy certain aspects of staying fit (maybe it’s just the feeling of exercise being done), but the people who exercise consistently do so even on the days they don’t feel like it.
Best of luck with the journey! It really is worth it.
I mildly enjoy brushing my teeth it feels good to do it. And my mouth feels nicer after I’ve brushed my teeth. If i go to bed without brushing, i lie in bed thinking that i should have cleaned my mouth.
I dislike lifting weights. And i feel sweaty and sore after i do it. It takes a hell of a lot more motivation to lift weights than to brush my teeth.
I mean, i agree that there’s nothing better for you than cultivating good habits. If you can make working out part of your daily routine, and stick to it, that’s terrific. But i find it’s awfully easy to drop an exercise here or there, after carefully cultivating a habit to do it daily.
Yeah, I think that’s where I end up too, especially since brushing teeth takes two minutes of no suffering and my full exercise routine takes from an hour to an hour and a half of more.
I’m not the best to give advice on this as I’m working to build those habits, but that seems like a very long routine which will actually make it harder to do routinely because of the time commitment. Doing something impactful for 40 minutes, that you’ll actually do will be more worthwhile than thinking you have to hit every exercize in an hour and a half block.
I’ve started exercizing regularly since the start of January and it’s taking me about 45 minutes to do. It’s working great, because I actually do have that 45 minutes in my day where I’d previously just be vegging on the couch, and as hard as it can be to get started, I really enjoy having exercized. And it’s paying off, I’ve lost weight and visibly gained tone. I’m in my mid 40s and have a pretty sedentary job, for context.
I’ve taken the position that I have no choice. To be healthy, I have to exercize a small amount daily, barring truly valid excuses like being out at an event or being held up at a client’s workplace and having an excessively long workday, or having a contractor come by after work when I’d normally be working out. Some weeks I’m doing something 7 days, the “worst” week I’ve had I was only able to do 5.
I don’t really tell myself it’s motivation. It’s just discipline. I need to do it, so I have to do it, that’s it. In the summer I can go kayaking a lot, but in the winter, I need to do this.
I hope I’ll be able to maintain it, it’s going well so far.
100%. I hate HATE going to the gym. But I really like how I feel after i’m finished.
That’s my problem. I hate how i feel after i exercise. I feel fine after a little walk or lifting a sack of kitty litter or something. But if i really work out, either cardio or strength, i get all sweaty, and i don’t want to move. So i tend to lie there on the couch feeling gross.
I get a similar post workout effect. I’ve heard from childhood that exercise is supposed to give me some kind of pleasant hormone effect. It never has so I never got a kick out of exercise.
In terms of exercise, I walk with a trash crew for about five miles/day. I also do normal cleaning, yard work and like to fix things so believe those are all good exercise for me.
It’s kind of like how people like having a clean house but don’t like to clean. And just like exercise, sometimes people struggle to find the motivation to clean, so they deal with the effects of living in a dirty house. But if someone is coming over, they magically find the motivation to clean up. Or, at least, the motivation to make things look like the house is not so dirty.
Along those lines, you can help create the motivation to exercise by setting an exercise related goal. Since you do treadmill, you might consider setting a goal of doing a running race, such as a 5K, 10K or 1/2 marathon. To help even more, join a coached running group. It’s often easier to run with a group than on your own. The coach will provide motivation and guidance to help you do your best in the race. You will get motivation from the other participants in the group. Being in a coached group will mean you’ll be training on a regular schedule at defined times. You won’t have to find the motivation to spontaneously do a workout. You’ll know you’ll have to be some place at some time to do a workout you paid for. One way to find find running groups is go to go a local running specialty store or sporting goods store. They often know of the groups and can point you in the right direction.